


The Ultimate Awkward High School Reunion

by Faetherial



Category: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-10-12 13:01:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17468060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faetherial/pseuds/Faetherial
Summary: *STORY CONTAINS OR WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR BASICALLY ALL OF DR AND DRV3 just a warning*Sayaka Maizono meets up with her classmates again after the killing game, and it goes about as well as you would expect.





	1. Trigger-Happy Haze

**Author's Note:**

> NOTE: This work has spoilers for all of Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and will eventually have spoilers for Dangan Ronpa V3: Killing Harmony. If you're okay with those then continue reading :)

Sayaka hadn’t expected to wake up. She had known she was going to die as soon as she heard the shower door crash open, maybe even as soon as she’d dropped the knife when her wrist broke. And yet, her eyes slid open to the scene of her own murder: Makoto’s shower, completely drenched in blood, the door flung open and the doorknob on the floor beside it. She blearily looked to the left of her, at the place on the wall where her final message was written: LEON.

Sayaka had a sudden urge to vomit- could ghosts vomit? (was she a ghost now?) -She suddenly remembered it, her plan. Her plan to frame Makoto. She… Hadn’t had any other choice. Of course she hadn’t. Otherwise she never would’ve… She rested her head in her hands, and saw that her shirt was soaked with blood, the kitchen knife still sticking out of her, giving her an excuse to put off following her train of thought. She couldn’t feel the pain anymore, but… She removed the knife from her stomach, resisting the urge to vomit again, because YES there absolutely WAS still a stab wound there. Great, she’d never be able to forget how gruesome her death had been, and everyone who saw her would think she was some vengeful spirit from a horror movie. Although… Sayaka staggered to her feet, wondering if anyone would ever be able to see her like this, considering her situation. And then wondering how long it would take for her to go insane never seeing anyone again, forever.

At that point Sayaka Maizono decided to stop thinking for a while.

Sayaka leaned on the wall for support as she stumbled out of the shower and into Makoto’s room, which was exactly as it had been the last time she’d seen it. There were scuff marks on the wall where she and Leon had been fighting, and the practice sword was on the floor, half of the gold leaf flaked off. When she saw the sword, Sayaka involuntarily glanced at her wrist and winced. She noticed there was gold leaf there, as well. Was she _exactly_ the same as when she’d died? She turned her palm upward and, lo and behold, there was blood on her finger- her own blood, which she’d used to write her dying message. Why…? Well, she still had no idea how the ‘ghost’ thing worked, so she definitely couldn’t find an explanation for her state.

Speaking of her state… What was she supposed to do? Sayaka didn’t even know if there was anything  _to_  do, now that she was dead. In fact, she had no idea if this afterlife extended beyond this room. She sincerely hoped so. Standing up straight, she looked at the door. It was simple, she told herself: she would walk over to it, twist the doorknob and open the door, and when she did she would see the dormitory hallway, or maybe, hopefully, her own bedroom at home. Yes, that would be it, she kept telling herself, but she couldn’t shake the hesitation she felt. What if… What if there was nothing out there? What if she was being punished for her treachery by being trapped in this room forever? After what felt like an eternity, Sayaka snapped out of it: she marched over to the door, twisted the doorknob and swung open the door to reveal…

A classroom- a completely wrecked classroom. With some… unusual features, primarily a spaceship which appeared to have crashed through the ceiling. Well… That certainly didn’t answer any of her questions. In fact, this strange scene just raised even more of them. Namely, what the hell.

There was a shuddering noise from the rocket. Sayaka waited a few seconds: then, deciding nothing worse could happen to her than had _already_ happened, she tiptoed over the half-destroyed desks to the spaceship. She put her hand on the door and, pushing down thoughts of “it’s probably an afterlife demon in there,” tugged it open. Inside was… a man. A normal, middle-aged man with no horns and no fangs, and who did not seem like the soul-eating type. He pushed himself upright and attempted to climb out of the rocket, and Sayaka gave him a hand.

“Are you okay, sir?” she asked, after the man had gotten to his feet. The man looked properly at her, then his eyes widened.

“Maizono?!” he exclaimed, “You…” his eyes drifted to the stab wound in Sayaka’s abdomen. “I assume you’re dead, too?”

Sayaka stared at the man, trying to figure out if she knew him. He definitely seemed to know her, but she was used to strangers calling her by name. Still, he had talked like they were acquaintances…

“I’m sorry, have we met before?” Sayaka said. The man paused, staring at her. Then he ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.

“I guess that bear was telling the truth, then… Their memories really are gone.” The man said it mostly to himself.

“A bear? Do you mean… Monokuma?” Had he met that weird stuffed animal? Was this man also caught up in the killing game? And how had she known him before, because now she was sure she had met him. When he’d said ‘their memories really are gone,’ had he been referring to the other people trapped in this screwed-up school? Sayaka mentally steeled herself. She had been asking far too many questions, lately: now she was going to get some answers.

“Who are you? How do we know each other?” Sayaka asked, staring at the man resolutely.

The man looked surprised for a moment, probably at the suddenness of the questions, then sighed again. “My name is Jin Kirigiri. I am- I was the principal of Hope’s Peak academy. It seems we have a lot to talk about.”


	2. The Headmaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sayaka catches up on a few things she missed.

“...So we were all classmates?” Sayaka had about a million thoughts running through her head after Kirigiri’s explanation of what had happened before the killing game, but for some reason that was the only one she could put into words.

“I know this is probably overwhelming,” Kirigiri said, “although how they even managed to erase your memories of that time is beyond me.”

Sayaka nodded. “I’m still having trouble believing it, myself.” She’d never said anything more true: How was it possible for them to make a whole class forget two years? Although the ‘end of the world’ part was also pretty ridiculous- could somebody really convince the entire world to descend into war? And over something so pointless...

“By ‘they’, you mean… Ultimate Despair, right?” Sayaka felt like she needed to understand these people, even though she knew she never would. Maybe if she knew their reasons, she could find some meaning for her death. Maybe the rest of her classmates could use her death as motivation to move forward and overcome the challenge they were facing! Maybe…

...No, of course not. Of course they wouldn’t. Not once they learned what she was really like, and what she had planned to do.

“Yes, Ultimate Despair,” Kirigiri said, startling Sayaka out of her contemplation, “we never did figure out who they were, but…” Sayaka noticed how Kirigiri trailed off, not like he didn’t know what to say but like he knew exactly what he had to say and felt sick at the thought. “...But I, along with a few members of the staff, determined in our investigation that the leader was a student at Hope’s Peak academy.”

Sayaka didn’t really register what Kirigiri had said for a few seconds, and then the impact hit her like a bullet. “A- A student at Hope’s Peak?!” she repeated, her eyes wide. “How did- Wait, a student did all of this?!”

Kirigiri nodded solemnly. “The student had followers, of course. Even until I died I had no idea why so many people listened to them.”

Sayaka couldn’t stop the disgust she felt from seeping into her voice- disgust for herself as much as anybody, for trying to do what Ultimate Despair wanted. “I can’t imagine what kind of person would listen to someone so-”

There was a deafening, metallic clang in the next room, and Sayaka jerked her head to look in that direction without finishing her sentence.

“What was that…?” Kirigiri asked, astonishingly calm.

“I don’t know,” Sayaka said. Although, now that she thought about it, she did have an idea…

“Do you think it could be… Another victim?” Sayaka hadn’t known her fellow classmates long enough to- well, actually she had supposedly known them for years, but still. She didn’t know who else was willing to kill to escape that place, but she wouldn’t put it past any of them… Except Makoto. Another person dead wouldn’t be surprising.

“Maybe we should go see?” Kirigiri, still composed as ever, waited for Sayaka’s answer. Sayaka thought about it, but there was really only one choice.

“Yes. Let’s see who’s next.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to thank everyone who read this story and gave kudos and commented, I'm really glad people are enjoying it so far :)  
> Also I know this was a short chapter, don't worry (if you were worrying in the first place, if you weren't then continue not worrying) the next one will be longer and stuff will actually happen.


	3. Ultimate Soldier, Ultimate Despair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sayaka and Kirigiri see who's next.

Sayaka opened the door to the next room, and was greeted with the sight of blood.

The school gym, where Sayaka and her classmates had first met Monokuma, was a sea of red- or, was it pink now? Was blood pink in the afterlife? Her eyes seemed to be playing tricks on her.

Amidst the blood was a haunting figure: a girl shot through with multiple metal spears, slumped over so that she was leaning on them. Sayaka, as uncomfortable as she was with another dead body, crept over to her. As she got closer, she could tell who the person was: Junko Enoshima.

“Junko? Are you awake yet?” Sayaka said softly.

Junko’s eyes were already wide open, but they seemed to be staring at nothing, empty. And now that Sayaka listened closer, she could hear her confused muttering.

“Why would she do this? This wasn’t the plan… Why would she kill me?” Junko kept on whispering to herself, not even seeming to notice Sayaka there.

“Junko…?” Sayaka whispered. She felt like she should try to somehow remove the spears, or at least help Junko. She seemed so confused… what could possibly have happened?

Junko’s muttering slowly came to a stop. Then, to Sayaka’s surprise, Junko violently wrenched herself up, gripped one of the spears, and ripped it out of her chest.

Sayaka stood dumbfounded as Junko, without hesitation, pulled each spear out of her chest one by one and threw them on the floor. Not even seeming to feel any pain… was she superhuman? Maybe ghosts couldn’t feel pain- actually, that was right. Sayaka couldn’t feel the pain from her stab wound anymore, even though it was still bleeding. After the last spear had clattered to the floor, Junko slowly turned to Sayaka.

“...Where am I?” Junko asked, glancing around bewildered.

“I think this is the afterlife,” Sayaka said, because she didn’t know what else it would be. Junko continued to scan the room. Sayaka noticed that her posture and expression were… different than they were when she was alive. She looked like she was ready to kill somebody.

“Junko, I know you just died, but… Are you feeling okay?” Sayaka asked. Junko stared at Sayaka for a moment: then, almost like a robot rebooting, her face went blank, before gaining an airheaded smile.

“Yeah, I’m like, totally okay. Just kind of freaked ‘cause all those spears came out of the floor and, like, stabbed me.” Wait… ...They came out of the _floor_...?

At that point, Sayaka came to the obvious realization that no student would have been able to commit this murder.

“Junko, what exactly _happened?_ ” Sayaka asked, more confused now than concerned.

“What do you mean, what happened?” Junko retorted, now with a familiar look of angry annoyance. Had Sayaka just been seeing things before? But she definitely hadn’t imagined that muttering. What had Junko been saying… Why would she do this, why would she kill me?

“I mean, who murdered you?” Sayaka asked.

“Oh, right. It was that asshole teddy bear! He was telling us to do this stupid class trial to figure out who killed Mai- wait, that’s you.” Junko knocked her forehead a few times with her fist, though each knock was so forceful she looked like she was punching herself in the face. “I, like, didn’t even notice. I’m such a ditz.”

Kirigiri, still standing in the doorway, cleared his throat. Sayaka had almost forgotten he was there.

“Junko Enoshima. That’s who you are?” Kirigiri asked in a strangely accusatory tone. Was he okay? Of course that was Junko, it wasn’t like she could be someone els-

Wait. What if she really _was_ someone else...? The more Sayaka thought about it, the more it made sense: how Junko was acting, Kirigiri’s reaction, even the fact that she looked different from her modeling photos…

“...Uh, yeah? Who else would I be?” Junko- or, whoever she was- crossed her arms and glared at Kirigiri. That glare… Junko’s words were casual, but her face was one of pure hatred. Kirigiri didn’t seem to mind, though. He just continued staring back calmly.

“I see. Then I guess you’ve changed a lot since we last met? Your voice and appearance are much different than I remember.” Right, Kirigiri had known them all before. He _would_ know what the real Junko looked like.

Junko bristled, glaring even harder at Kirigiri.

“Yeah, that’s what happened! What’s even wrong with you, why are you interrogating me, what, you can’t trust me? I was in your class fo-” Junko stopped abruptly, realizing her mistake. But Sayaka and Kirigiri had already heard it. “Wait, no, I don’t even know you, I’ve never met you and you can’t tell me how I’m supposed to look so just shut the hell up!”

Kirigiri didn’t waver at all in the wake of this verbal tidal wave. In fact, he seemed to gain confidence in what he was about to say. “So you still have your high school memories? That’s interesting to know… Mukuro Ikusaba.”


	4. Murderers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody has some questions.

Sayaka’s first thought: Who the hell is Mukuro Ikusaba?

With all of that buildup, Sayaka had been expecting some huge revelation. Something like, the impostor was some infamous criminal, like that serial killer genocide Jack, or at least someone Sayaka had heard of. But… the impostor was just someone named Mukuro Ikusaba, who was now continuing her confused muttering from earlier. Okay.

Sayaka’s second thought: if that one is an impostor, then where’s the real Junko Enoshima?

Kirigiri seemed to have been thinking the same thing. “So, what have you done with the real one? Is she dead?”

Junko- or, Mukuro- had reverted to her blank, listless state. “The real… one… What have I… done with her?”

“Yes.” Kirigiri waited patiently.

“I didn’t… I wouldn’t… do anything to her… I haven’t… killed her...” Mukuro’s eyes got wider and wider as she went on, so much that Sayaka contemplated stopping Kirigiri’s next question. But… Well, she was curious.

“Is that question too hard for you?” Kirigiri asked. Junko- urgh,  _ Mukuro-  _ was so still she didn’t even seem to be breathing. “...I’ll take that as a yes,” Kirigiri sighed to himself. “Okay, then why were you pretending to be Enoshima?”

“I… I’m not…” Mukuro managed to choke out. On second thought… Maybe Sayaka should have stopped Kirigiri from asking anything else.

“You’re not pretending? I already know you are. Just tell me why.” Kirigiri was looking as calm as ever, but Sayaka could hear in his tone that his patience was wearing thin.

Mukuro clenched her fists. “I’m… I’m not... going to say anything.”

Kirigiri looked like he needed a stiff drink.

Kirigiri kept trying in vain to get information out of Mukuro, but Sayaka’s attention was drawn by something else… a strange noise, which seemed to have come from the next room over. It had sounded like a bunch of beanbags hitting the ground, or at least something like that. The last time there had been a noise from another room, Mukuro had died. So, did that mean…?

“We should go see what’s in the next room,” Sayaka announced, breaking Kirigiri and Mukuro out of their interrogation. “I think someone else might have died.” That, and Kirigiri didn’t seem to be getting anywhere with his questioning.

“...I agree,” Kirigiri said, then focused on Mukuro again. “Are you coming?”

Mukuro gave the closest thing to a nod she could manage. Sayaka then turned to the door and took a deep breath. Who would it be this time? She really hoped it wasn’t Makoto- he didn’t deserve to die, but also… how would she face him? Did he even know about her plan? Maybe he didn’t. Maybe nobody knew, maybe they’d never find out…

And with that as motivation, Sayaka threw open the door, confidently stepped into the next room, and immediately lost all sense that she knew what was going on.

This room was completely unfamiliar, not to mention weird. On one end, there was a sort of courtroom: a circle of podiums overlooked by a huge judge’s chair. On the other was some sort of murderous batting cage, except the participant had been chained to a post on home base. Evidently, they had missed more than a few pitches, if the bloody baseballs strewn on the ground were any indication. Somebody had died that way? Between Mukuro’s spears and this person’s deadly baseball game, Sayaka was starting to feel lucky that she’d only been stabbed with a knife.

“What… What is this?” Kirigiri was casting around the room in horror. “Did you know this would happen?” He suddenly glared at Mukuro, who, of course, didn’t show any sign of having heard him. That aside, who was chained there? Sayaka was too far away to tell, so she inched towards the body. 

Now that she was closer, she could… Still not tell who it was, actually. The baseballs had hit the victim all over, and since there wasn’t much light, the bruises and blood obscured any defining features.

Oh well. At least there was a quicker way to find out.

“Hey! who are you?” Sayaka called, a bit louder than she meant to. The person chained to the post stirred.

“Huh? What’s going on?” the person said. It was definitely a boy, but for some reason hearing that voice made her feel sick to her stomach. Why was that? And why was she so tense? That voice had put her mind into a panic. Who could it be? Who  _ would  _ it be-

 

...Oh.

 

It was him.


	5. A Super-Fun Game of Torture Baseball!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sayaka deals with some things.

It was him. It was Leon. Leon, the person who had killed her, stabbed her in the stomach, whose name she had written in blood on the wall of the shower. It was him, chained to a post, and she had to look at him and hear his voice and remember her murder, and how terrified she had been, and the pain lying there, bleeding out as she traced the bloody letters, and, and…

And how she had been intending for _him_ to be the one dead.

“Am I dreaming?” Leon asked groggily, and as he half-heartedly tried to escape his chains Sayaka realised they were more like metal bands. She couldn’t decide which was worse. Leon gave up on his escape attempt, then looked around properly. “...Yeah, I’ve gotta be dreaming.”

Sayaka stayed very still, as if Leon was a predator which tracked its prey by motion. ...Well, he definitely wasn’t like that, but maybe if she didn’t move he would think she was part of the furniture and ignore her.

“...Anyway, who was that yelling at me?” Leon scanned the room some more. Furniture. Become part of the furniture.

“Not gonna say anything, I guess,” Leon said, sighing. “Could you at least help me down, though?” Sayaka hoped Kirigiri or Mukuro would do that part. Or, maybe they could just leave him there. He didn’t deserve it as much as Sayaka felt _she_ would in that situation, but he did commit murder…

No, no. That was just an excuse to avoid him. And anyway, Kirigiri and Mukuro were already walking over to him.

“Kuwata? Is that you?” Kirigiri asked, looking horrified at Leon’s grotesque execution. Sayaka was sure that if Kirigiri was still alive, he’d have had a heart attack by now. Thinking about it, he was the one who this would be the most stressful for. Even if they’d spent years together, Sayaka and her classmates didn’t know each other, so seeing each other dead- while traumatizing- didn’t have as much impact. Kirigiri _remembered_ all the time he’d spent as their teacher. How awful would it be to see your students killing each other? And...

...What would he think when he found out that Sayaka had been the first one to try?

While Sayaka had been thinking, Mukuro and Kirigiri had gotten Leon down from his post. Sayaka was surprised he could stand- although, she guessed that was a perk of being a ghost, since she wasn’t supposed to be able to stand either. When he stepped into the light, he looked even worse that he had before. There were bloody, baseball-shaped craters all over his body, and his face was almost unrecognizable. His neck, the place least damaged by the baseball onslaught, had an angry red mark on it- was he strangled as well? That… Seemed like overkill.

Sayaka realised the pun she had made, and immediately regretted it. She was also starting to regret opening the door to this room, because Leon was looking around, and any moment now…

“Wh- You!” Said a shocked Leon, and Sayaka seriously contemplated just ignoring him and staring at the wall. But… She would have to deal with this at some point. So why not just get it over with?

First step, don’t show fear. Or guilt. Sayaka turned to Leon with her best innocent idol face on, but all she could get out was an awkward “Hi, Leon.”

Leon glared at her. “Don’t ‘Hi Leon’ me! You’re the reason I’m dead!” he shouted. Sayaka could see Kirigiri rapidly trying to put the pieces together of what had happened. Sayaka decided to speak before he came to an unfavourable conclusion- one he would eventually come to anyway, but at least he should know she wasn’t _entirely_ in the wrong. Just… Almost entirely.

“Well, you’re the reason _I’m_ dead, too. Let’s call it even.” Sayaka impressed herself with how cold she sounded.

Leon seemed taken aback for a moment, and some feelings of guilt seemed to dampen his will to argue. Which was good, because anyone who knew the situation could see that Sayaka’s logic was extremely flawed.

“What… Happened?” Kirigiri was showing visible confusion, and Sayaka guessed he should be brought up to speed. The problem with that was, well… Then he’d be someone who knew the situation.

But if Sayaka left it up to Leon to explain, he would make her sound even worse, so she decided there was nothing for it.

“What happened was that…” She could just say Leon killed her, but then Leon would immediately retort by saying she’d tried to kill _him._ Kirigiri would think she was a terrible person- and, he wasn’t wrong- but Sayaka didn’t want to spend her afterlife being hated by everyone. Kirigiri had to find out, but how could she make him understand? She’d _had_ to, she needed to get out, her friends…

That was it.

“Monokuma explained the killing game, right?” This was a good starting point, Sayaka felt.

“You were all trapped in the school, and in order to get out you had to kill another student, correct?” Good. This was going fine. Sayaka just had to be very careful in how she… Framed this.

“Well, obviously we weren’t very quick to start killing each other,” Sayaka said, “So Monokuma decided to give us some motivation. He gave us all these videos…” Sayaka was getting kind of choked up now, remembering why she’d originally made her plan. And she’d never found out what had happened to her friends… No, calm down. She didn’t want to have another breakdown. “He gave us each a different video, showing someone close to us, and then… They made us think they were in danger, or that something had happened to them. It was meant to make us desperate to get out, and I…” Sayaka had thought this would involve acting, but she now realized just how much she had been affected by this entire thing- the killing game, the videos… Had she really always been that close to the edge? To committing murder? All it had taken was the thought that there might be nobody waiting outside for her, if she didn’t hurry and get out… She had been willing to end someone’s life, just because she was scared that if she didn’t, she would be alone again.

She really had become a terrible person, hadn’t she? Why was she trying to hide it? Sayaka didn’t know how long it had been since she’d trailed off. She just stood frozen, wanting to cry and laugh at the same time. It was hilarious, really. Her whole life, she had just wanted to give hope to girls like her, to help them keep going even when their life seemed awful. But every bit of that persona was a lie. Every part of her had been a lie for years, and as soon as she had the chance to be honest- Meeting Makoto, someone she trusted even in the midst of that killing game- she betrayed him and made herself an even bigger lie. And all of it had gotten her here, dead, trying to hide how terrible she was again.

Sayaka slowly looked at Leon, and was surprised. He didn’t look angry anymore. He didn’t have any pity on his face, either. Even though Sayaka didn’t deserve it, Leon was looking at her as a person, a person who he was trying hard to understand.

“We don’t have to talk about it,” he said. Just minutes ago, Sayaka would have welcomed this. But she couldn’t keep hiding. That, and Kirigiri deserved to know what happened, and Leon deserved to tell his side of the story.

“It’s fine,” Sayaka said shakily, “I'll say it. I tried to kill Leon Kuwata.”


End file.
